By DAN RICHMAN, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Updated 10:00 pm, Monday, February 7, 2005

An attention-getting press release yesterday touted a forthcoming video game that will feature animals "hunting the hunters." It conjured up images of woodland creatures picking off the human "sportsmen" who delight in thinning their ranks.

"Too often the smallest creatures are the most defenseless, subject to the ravages of nature and human encroachment on their habitats," said an executive of Redmond-based Nintendo of America Inc., one Reynard Vulpine.

Right on! Not out of vengeance. Just out of fairness.

Turns out, though, that the executive is fictional. Reynard is from the French for "fox," and vulpine, from the Latin, means "resembling a fox." And then there was his title: senior vice president of animal-human reconciliation.

The press release was teasing the Feb. 14 debut of "StarFox: Assault," a $49.95 video game for Nintendo's GameCube video console.

Nintendo is the third-largest seller of video consoles in the world, with an estimated market share of 18 percent at the end of 2004, according to market-research firm IDC. That's behind Sony Corp., whose PlayStation and PlayStation 2 together hold 61 percent of the market, and Microsoft Corp., whose Xbox holds 21 percent.

Nintendo sold an estimated 4.7 million GameCubes last year, compared with Sony's 13.9 million PlayStation 2s and 1.9 million PlayStations and Microsoft's 5.5 million Xboxes.

A look at the game's Web site shows that "StarFox: Assault" does indeed feature animals as protagonists. Cartoony-looking animals.

There's also Krystal, a bikini-clad female fox; Falco Lombardi, a falcon that looks more like a pterodactyl; Slippy, a space-suited toad; and Peppy, a futuristic-looking, buck-toothed rabbit.

Also appearing are a dinosaur named Prince Tricky and a dog named General Pepper.

The press release was the creation of PR agency writer Kevin Sherry, who also has an amusing Web site on horrible sweaters.

OK, the release was cute. But the reality was disappointing.

The game pits animals not against human predators but against other animals: "an infestation of alien insects" invading the galaxy, according to its Web site.

So does Nintendo have any plans for a first-animal shooter? You know -- a game where realistically drawn lil' bunnies ambush camouflaged hunters with teeny AK-47s, and squirrels detonate Claymore mines from real tree stands?

"I'm pretty sure there's nothing like that in the works," said spokeswoman Beth Llewelyn.